Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 19. Last time we looked at the beginning of 19. Remember, we looked at the end of 18 and the beginning of 19, and we talked about those who had been baptized with John's baptism. And we talked about the old administration and the new administration. And then from there, we looked at the power of the new administration. We looked at Paul splitting the synagogue, right? It was a church, an old covenant church. And then there was opposition. And so eventually, Paul ends up splitting off those who are willing to accept the testimony of God. And so there is the new covenant church that is formed as the continuing church by pulling out. Paul is teaching for two years using the school of Tyrannus. And so there is this large amount of teaching to a large amount of people. And so he will later say that he taught them the whole counsel of God. And so that that gives you a sense that can be done in two years. Right now, maybe you have a little more time than just the Lord's Day being there, right? So there's there's every day that he is teaching, but he's looking for people who want to be discipled. And certainly he's repeating some things there and seeking to teach and to help to to get that in. So, then we looked at the unusual miracles in verse 11, and I told you that the more literal translation was the never-happening miracles, right? So, these are supposed to be kind of mind-blowing, wonder-inducing miracles. Now, we talked about the burning of the books that are associated with witchcraft, and how that relates to idolatry, and then we looked at those who tried to use the name of Jesus to cast out demons, and they use his name in vain, and that being sort of idolatry. So the opposition in conjunction with the powerful working of the Spirit, right? There's the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. There's the church functioning with the gifts, with the instruments that are given, with the ordinances. And in opposition to that, there's the devil. the opposition with idolatry. There is this world versus the church. Now, when we move into this next part, we're going to be looking more specifically at the world versus church part. A world versus church. So we've been doing basically the flesh with idolatry, and we've been looking at the devil with these spirits in opposition to the spirit and the kingship of Christ. So we'll be moving now into this part where there's a confrontation of the world with the church. So we ended with verse 20. It is, So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. And I suggested to you that a more literal translation actually helps you to get the point better. It's thus towards power or rule. Okay, the word is kratos. So it's rule. So thus towards rule, the word of the Lord was growing and becoming powerful. So what we have, as there's people who are being saved from sin, as people are being brought from darkness to light, as people are being sanctified, as they're becoming more and more consistent in their Christianity, they are learning the truth, they are growing in the truth, there's an increase in unity. And what that allows for is the rule of the Word of God to grow. The law order revealed in scripture is increasingly applied, and it causes dominion. It causes the expression of godliness outwardly. So there's an interplay between trying to do righteousness outwardly and at the same time with the inward. Sometimes we'll say, we just want the inward. We want the power, but we don't care about the forms. Okay, well, the power doesn't last long without the forms. And sometimes we'll say, well, let's get the forms in place and the power will follow. Well, the forms can be used vainly, like the sons of Siva. So you have to believe the truth, and you have to seek to apply the forms. And the result is reformation. And as reformation comes increasingly, it results in increasing conflict. And so we're going to see that conflict. We're going to see what happens. After the success of the apostolic ministry, there's a counterattack. Let's read about it. Verse 21. we'll be reading through the end of the chapter. When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus. But he himself stayed in Asia for a time. And about that time there arose a great commotion about the way." And we saw that earlier, the term the way, that's Christianity. There arose a great commotion about the way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana. It says Diana, the Greek word there is Artemis, it's the Greek word for this goddess, this false goddess, Artemis. Who made silver shrines of Artemis brought no small profit to the craftsman. He called them together with the workers of similar occupation and said, men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only this trade of ours is in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship." Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's traveling companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused. And most of them did not know why they had come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hands and wanted to make his defense to the people. But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Artemis? and of the image which fell down from Zeus, or heaven. Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rationally, for you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, The courts are open, and there are pro-consuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly. For we are in danger of being called into question for today's uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. All right, so we have seen the success, and we're now looking at the counterattack. Now, one of the things that you will consistently see that God does against his enemies is he causes their own disunity, their own confusion, to cause them to bite and to consume each other. So here are the enemies that we have that are presented. We have Demetrius and the silversmiths as craftsmen who have sort of a trade union, a guild, a desire to maintain an economic interest. So they are pragmatic businessmen who want to use religion to make money. We have the general population who takes pride in their popular religion and is opposed to the destruction of the glory of their goddess, Artemis. And they take personal pride. Her glory is sort of their glory because they are the temple guardian city. This city is associated in particular with Artemis. So they have an interest in that. And the pilgrimages, you know, we think about tourism as a part of the economy. And this sort of pilgrimage economy is a part of their economy. And so they're thinking we care about this for multiple reasons, not the least of which is the money. Then we have the Jews who are opposed to the Christians. We have Alexander as a representative here. He's trying to get up. And he's either trying to pacify to avoid the crowd taking out an indiscriminate rage against Christians and Jews, because there's a general problem that people yet don't really quite know how to differentiate the Jews and the Christians. Or maybe he's trying to redirect the anger at Paul and the Christians, and to say, hey, these are the people that are causing this, and to try to make sure that there's not a confusion, but maybe to also redirect. So there could be a diffusing effort to try to get the anger down, or maybe Alexander's trying to make them direct their anger specifically at the Christians, But in either case, we don't really know, because he just gets pulled down, shouted down. Then you have kind of the set of the good guys that are in the midst of all this. You have the Christians. You have Paul's companions. You have Paul himself. Paul's trying to kind of jump up there and start talking, and his friends pull him back. He's like, Paul, come on. Calm down. What you doing? And so then you have also this man who is the city clerk. And the city clerk, he gets up there and he's sort of the pragmatic politician and he just lies. He just lies all over the place to get people to just kind of calm down. He's like, these people are not blaspheming your goddess. I mean, that's just wrong, right? Paul has very clearly been blaspheming their goddess. He has been saying that she's not a goddess, that in fact, this is a demon they're worshiping, right? Paul has clearly been doing exactly what the crowd is angry about. And the politician just lies. Now, I know that's shocking to us. Our politicians don't lie anymore. They don't get on TV and just say false things all over the place. So, we'll have to put our minds back and imagine a culture in which the politicians are not so upright as ours. So, those are the parties that we see laid out here. Now, chapter 19, verse 21. At the beginning here, these things were accomplished. The good stuff, the success. Paul is, the Holy Spirit is both in the sense of sanctifying him, to have him have a zeal to do what he is set out to do, his mission, but also because he is a revelatory officer, right? He's being given revelation. There's also kind of a plan, a path that he's being given. And so there, he's being not only brought into zeal to do these things, but he's also being given, revelation about what he's supposed to do. And so he passed through Macedonia, he goes through Achaia, and he's got a mission. He wants to go to Jerusalem. Now, if you know where this story is going, you know that that Jerusalem journey doesn't work out particularly well. He gets arrested, and of course the Lord uses that for his own glory. And then he wants to go to Rome, and his arrest results in him going to Rome, right? So we see this plan here, and that's going to get followed. verse 22. So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time. So there seems to be a tendency that when Timothy and Erastus or anybody, the main guys, the guys that are the most useful to him, when they leave, it's like Paul ends up getting a little bit more aggressive because of the fact that he doesn't have other strong people. to kind of push things forward. And so he becomes the target more of the opposition. When there's other strong leaders with him, there's kind of a diffusion, the group gets targeted. Now, when a movement has one principal leader, it is very easy to focus criticism on that one point. So part of the burden of ruling is criticism. There's a certain degree to which, because we deserve criticism, right? Because Paul was not perfect. I am not perfect. Anybody who's leading, if they have a place of prominence where they're the one guy, right? This is the problem with the guy leadership model. The guy. If you've got the guy, he's going to get the criticism. And when the guy gets the criticism, eventually some of it's going to stick. And people are going to get mad. And they're going to hate that guy. They're going to go after him. Now, the more effective, the more powerful, the more energetic, the more zealous the guy is, the faster that's going to happen. And so it's important, men, to make sure that there are a good number of qualified leaders, which means you. And that means that there's more of us to bear the load and more of us to bear the criticism and to work together on. And it makes it so that when I mess up, I'm gonna blow it, I promise. When I mess up, I can apologize, take a step back, admit fault, and somebody else can move the thing forward. And that gives me time to recover and to help to get back up there and push the cart forward. Okay, so that's gonna happen. So that happens. These guys leave. Paul is there. Verse 23, And about that time there arose a great commotion about the way. Now, they see the weakness. Paul is there. They're going after him. This is all happening. Providentially, this is coming together. There's a time where there's a great commotion. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no small profit to the craftsman. So this is the guy. He's sort of the broker. He's a good salesman. He's a good marketer. He's able to subcontract. So he's able to bring a lot of profit to the other people because he goes around and he makes the deals. And he does QC. He makes sure that the quality of the work is sufficient. The people that are paying the money, they're happy. So he is gathering all this business. He does a good job of that. And so now he's made all these other craftsmen largely dependent upon him. And so he's able to go to them and say, guys, the work is drying up. This is not my fault. My sales skill is fantastic. My marketing is the best. And everything I'm doing is amazing. But Paul is going against us. He's taking market share from Artemis and giving it to Yahweh, to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the problem is that we have to stop what's happening here. Verse 25, "...called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said, Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade. Moreover, you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands." Now look how he clearly has heard the argument. He's aware of the argument. He's heard the argument. And he restates it with a straight face. This guy thinks it is unfitting to say that the things they make with their own hands are not gods. Just meditate on that for a second. These craftsmen are making things, and they're selling them, and they're telling people these are gods. Throughout almost all Asia, This Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods, which are made with hands." Now, transportation is an extraordinary cost at this time. So it's not like their market is the whole world. Their market is largely Asia. Now, Asia refers to Asia Minor. Think about modern Turkey. So we're talking about modern Turkey. This is the province of Asia. And so the concern is all of our addressable markets are being undermined. all of our addressable markets are being undermined. Verse 27, so not only this trade of ours is in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence destroyed. Now, this is an even bigger threat because them transporting goods throughout Asia is one thing, but people were willing to spend even more money to get there to that temple. They're willing to cross not only Asia, but maybe the whole Mediterranean. So he says, whom all Asia and the world worship. So people might be paying to get passage from Spain and go across the Mediterranean to be able to come here. So these are the two things that bring them economic prosperity. The trade in goods, in terms of making these idols, and the trade in tourism. And so both are being undermined. So he's saying, what's going to happen to our city if we can't sell idols and if we don't attract people to come and worship our great idol? You can imagine in a modern sense, think about if there were a great reformation and revival in the city of Las Vegas. Some of the economic arguments that people might start to make about, we have to stop this reformation. Look what is happening to our economy. You can turn it into modern terms and think about how the arguments amongst businessmen might go in that circumstance. Verse 28, Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! This is like a cartoon villain response. I mean, just like you hear about this rage and they just they're mad. They just immediately cry out. Right. It's like their slogan. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And you just like seem like a running to the to the center of the city to gather together the people and to get them to start yelling mad. And this is supposed to be comical, right? We read the Bible and we're so serious about it that sometimes we forget to laugh at stuff. It's hilarious, right? Think about the argument here. Guys, they're saying that we are not making gods, which is going to really bring down the price of the things that we sell. And we lose the divine attribute here, the price is going to plummet. And then, you know, this anger about it, the wrath, the crying out, and then just going, getting the rest of the city. And at first you think, well, everybody, you know, they quickly get it. Everybody's getting it. They're all on board with this problem. The whole city is filled with confusion, though, and they rush into the theater. So now you've got this assembly based upon confusion. Everybody's like, what's going on here? What's this riot about? I don't know. I better go to it. I mean, this is... The problem is, though, we see this, right? We see this on the news. And so you might have thought this seemed kind of unbelievable, but you are seeing it now in our own country, right? So it's not as unbelievable, but the humor of it seems to go away a little bit when you're living in the midst of it. So the whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus. So they're full of wrath. They cry out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. The city, the whole city gets filled with confusion. And they're rushing around. And then they just start grabbing people. Gaius, Aristarchus, are these the right ones? Should we grab them? Let's start using physical violence, grabbing people that we're mad at. These are the right ones, right? Macedonians, Paul's travel companions. And when Paul wanted to go into the people, so Paul's response, brave guy, bold guy, zealous guy, what's the deal? I need to put a stop to this thing. Paul just wants to start arguing, getting this stuff to stop. The disciples would not allow him. Now, the disciples, I think here are showing some wisdom, okay? I talked to you about this tactic of God, right? His tactic is divide et impera, the divide and conquer. What he'll do, is he will cause confusion amongst his enemies so that they begin to fight each other. And the unity of the spirit, the unity in truth, is what is used to prevent fighting. So in the church, people will say doctrine divides, you need to not talk about doctrine so that we can have unity. That's the devil. When somebody says that, say, I slap your spirit on the snout. That's false. The only way to have unity is to have shared doctrine. You have to agree. So arguing is the process of coming to agreement. And so we have to have integrity to pursue agreement. And when we find ourselves to be incoherent, we find ourselves to be wrong, we have to repent. I'll give you a couple examples for myself in relatively recent history. Just a few years ago, I repented of my eschatology and became post-millennial. I was wrong. I learned. I've changed positions. That's something that some of you have been around for, seeing me learn about that. That's significant. It has been significant in terms of how it helps me to see the world and how it helps me to have optimism. And that's an example of something where I had to change, though I had to many people, express an alternate view. So it's embarrassing when you're wrong about something and you have to change your opinion. Right? You like to think that I am right, other people are wrong, and you realize I was wrong, other people were right. It's a painful experience. So that's something that you have to deal with. So that reality that unity comes through doctrine. Paul is operating out of that desire. He wants to get out there and confront. And at the same time, we need to realize that, again, because he was kind of the guy there, there is a danger of him being targeted, him being killed, the anger being poured out on him. Rioters turn pretty quickly into lynch mobs. They do. They destroy property. They destroy bodies. They destroy lives. And so these people show wisdom in pulling him back. His friends keep him there from harm. Now, the disciples would not allow him. Then some of the officials of Asia, the word is literally Asiarchs, so these rulers of Asia, the province, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater. So now his friends are trying to pull him back. the disciples, and then there are some friendly, perhaps believing, magistrates that are now also saying, Paul, we're trying to get order here. We need you to get away. Please pull away. Verse 32. Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused. Now we see the signs of this disunity kind of bubble up. When there's an enemy, there's an ability to focus unity of hatred. And so in geopolitics, it's common to talk about the danger of the power vacuum. The danger of the power vacuum is the temptation for a powerful nation to say, well, I mean, maybe I could take this thing, or maybe I could impose order here, right? People are going around, they're fighting each other. We'll just put our own soldiers into that place, and we'll make order. And it becomes a thing that drains the power of that nation. Afghanistan is known famously as a power vacuum. You know this. You were around 2001, you heard about this. Everybody talked about the grave of empires, the graveyard of empires. The British, the Russians, whatever. You go through all that. And now we're withdrawing our soldiers again. How many times have we ended the war in Afghanistan now? So we are aware of the tendency to draw in power, that power vacuums draw in. And so there's, when there's chaos, the desire to run in. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that there are three ways to deal with resisting our enemies, okay? There's the prophetic and prayerful. So we use that, we use prophecy and prayer. We speak the truth and we pray against, we appeal to heaven. There is the ability to defend self, right? To use physical force to defend self. And then lastly, there's fleeing. Is there any reasonable basis for Paul to think that he had the level of Judo skills sufficient to keep himself from being beat up by this crowd? It was unreasonable for him to go into the crowd in the midst of their furor. And so his friends wisely encouraged him to flee a circumstance of obvious persecution. obvious persecution and then what we see here's the wisdom of God in teaching us that when they persecute you in one town to flee to the other some therefore cried one thing verse 32 and some another for the assembly was confused and most of them did not know why they had come together why am i here that's what these people are thinking as they are there in this tumult and they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Now the Jews do the opposite thing, right? They put one of their leaders forward, Paul is being drawn back, and the Jews just throw one of their leaders forward. They say, yeah, use this thing. And we talked about how there are two possible ways of reading it. It's either they're trying to pacify, or they're trying to redirect and make sure the rage is not going to them, but just going to the Christians and to Paul. So they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hands and wanted to make his defense to the people. And so Alexander, this gives us an example of what would have happened if Paul had done this. When they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice, cried out for about two hours. The recognition that this is a unified enemy, even though they don't even know why they're there, they just start venting their rage for two hours, just yelling a mantra. What do they yell? Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. This is going back to the cartoon bad character thing that happened with the silversmiths when they You know, yelled, were angry and started running out, yelling, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Now the crowd does that for two hours. I want you to think about that for a second. Imagine yelling the same sentence over and over and over again for two hours. About 30 minutes in, they probably started figuring out how to have squads that could take breaks. They had to keep that thing rolling. Nobody's just yelling that for two hours straight. They developed a shift system. It's a good thing they had a union or a guild beforehand, because they probably just started going, you know what, guys? Let's start dividing the labor up. We'll have the squad in Southern Ephesus that sells there, that has a corner on that market. They get to yell now, and then we'll move to the next group. To yell the same thing for two hours straight, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So this is the city of man. This is what the city of man is. This is what the city of man does. Lots of fervor, lots of furor. Pagan gods matter. That's what they're saying over and over again in the streets. And that's what they're yelling. And they're just yelling it. And they don't know what they're saying. They don't know what the meaning is. And they are confronted with obvious stupidity. The obvious stupidity of the fact that they are making the gods with their own hands. So the word that's used for assembly here, this crowd, is called an ekklesia. Which, if you're familiar at all with the Greek for the word church, that's the most common word for church. This is an ekklesia. So when you see the unlawful assembly that the city clerk talks about, it's an unlawful ekklesia. It's an unlawful ekklesia. So what we have is a very clear contrast. The wrath, what is the fruit of the spirit? Not wrath. They're filled with wrath and they cry out nonsense as opposed to truth and wisdom. They're filled with confusion as opposed to unity. They're rushing about as opposed to thoughtful, sober-mindedness. They're seizing with violence as opposed to self-control and meekness. Now remember, meekness is not, you know, I don't have any strength. It's controlled strength, gentleness, controlled strength. This is uncontrolled strength. So the church is being put side by side here. This is a sort of biblical dialectic comparing the two things and contrasting the two things. Two hours of yelling, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, now, so the city clerk, you think, what is this, like a person with a typewriter? It's difficult to imagine. The city clerk is basically the mayor. This is the most powerful position on the city council. This is an elected office. This person represents the city to the Roman officials. is the guy when the council's not meeting he has administrative positions he appoints okay so there's somebody who's who's accounting for the treasury that reports to him he is the registrar he has employees that deal with registration of things like property he's the recorder so he is keeping track of the city minutes the city records the decisions of things He is controlling precedent. Right. So you hear about the Supreme Court writing a decision. You're about like Keller versus D.C. and you go, this precedent controls future decisions. The recorder, the clerk is doing this. He's the one who's writing that decision. OK, and so there is a lot of power in this guy. This is like the mayor getting up. He has all of the continuing appointed things. So he gets up. He's the mayor. He quiets the crowd and he says, Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus, or heaven?" So we all know, we're all on board, we all agree. Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, so he is pandering to the crowd. These things cannot be denied. We all know gods are made with hands. The big temple here, this statue, a gigantic statue, by the way, dozens of feet each dimension. This thing is huge. It's a huge thing. There's 36 columns with statues at the bottom of them. This is an enormous thing. This statue fell from heaven. It was given by Zeus. So this one was not made with hands. So they're all complaining about their idols being made with hands, being complained against. But this, this statue, it's a huge thing. Mayor saying, well, hey, look, we all know we have this statute that was given from heaven, not made with hands. And they eat it up. The crowd loves that. Think about the contradiction. The gods made with hands versus the god made without hands. Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. Well, I have typically argued that if somebody is a nihilist, or doesn't believe that they can know anything, they're skeptic, that they should be quiet. Because if you don't have knowledge, you shouldn't speak it. The argument that this magistrate uses is, if you know something is undeniable, then don't say it. Instead, what does the church teach? In the city of man, there's this, let's not talk about it, let's not argue it, let's not deal with this, let's assert contradictory things, using power to try to silence people. In the church, there is to be, a speaking of the truth. The undeniable things ought to be propounded. The implications of the undeniable need to be drawn out. We need to increasingly become conscious of the truth and become more consistent with the knowledge of the truth. So he says, these things can't be denied. You ought to be quiet and do nothing rationally. Well, if you have something that's undeniable, you should speak it and you should also act according to it. He's saying, don't speak it and don't act on it. Do you see the nonsense? This is the ruler, right? Who is supposed to rule? The wise. So the ruler of the fools is a fool. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. Well, wait a minute. So first of all, these are two common charges that are given against Jews. It is the robbers of temples. Well, the idea isn't just they're literally walking into the temple and taking stuff away, right? The idea is that they are robbing the temple of its worshipers and of the money that would have flown into it. And they are blaspheming these false gods by saying that they are demonic or that they are false gods. So verse 37, you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your gods. But what were the silversmiths saying? They were saying nobody's going to buy idols anymore and nobody's going to come and worship Artemis anymore. And so everything is going to be robbed from the temple. So this is exactly what they're saying, that they are robbers of temples. The city clerk gets up there and says, that's not the case. And also they're not blaspheming your gods. Verse 38, therefore, If Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. There's a place to do this. There's a lawful assembly where this can be done. And there are judges that can listen to the case. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you have any other inquiry, to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly as opposed to this unlawful one. For we are in danger of being called in question for today's uproar." In other words, we're in danger of being charged with rebellion because of this riot. There being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. And chapter 20 says now, after the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself. So we move next time into an orderly assembly. So chapter 20 is gonna be the orderly assembly. And we've seen now this false church, this false city of man, as opposed to the city of God. So these are the things, this is the confusion, this is a Babel assembly, and the ruler of it, without any intellectual basis for it, calls for orderliness, and has kind of a mess of a speech, but ultimately ends with, after lying about these people ends with a call for peace and is able to say, let's have law and order. And he then asserts good things, lawful courts, lawful officers, bringing charges, having an inquiry to determine what's going on, using a lawful assembly to have due process. Those are all good things. Those are all good things. And so that's how that ends. And this is the Babel city of man that's put forward. Now, we'll contrast that next time with the city of God. Are there any comments, questions, or objections from the voting members? Sir and I. Thank you, Elder Riggs, for your teaching. In terms of the view that Demetrius had of the idols that they were making and the relationship with Artemis, I wanted to ask, it seems that what you were saying is that they knew that, I might be wrong, so I wanted to ask. It seems that you were saying that they knew that Artemis was not a god, and that they knew that they were making false gods. Is that the case? So what I'm trying to say is that it should be obvious to them. If they know the charge, is that they are making God with their hands, and they are saying, no, we are making God with our hands. That that should be absurd to them. So they're inexcusable in their position. Could it be the case that they believe that Arbus is a god, but they're making images of her to use to worship her? Yeah, so the question is, can it be the case that they believe that Artemis is a god and that these are images that are used to worship her? So there have always been, and we talked about this when we talked about Mars Hill, right? There have always been more sophisticated pagans who have tried to make the argument that we're not worshipping the image, we are worshipping the thing represented by the image. But it's also the case that there has not been a popular understanding of that. So you look at popular Roman Catholicism and popular Eastern Orthodoxy and how people deal with icons or graven images of whatever variety. And there's the religious devotion. And there can be teaching about going beyond and trying to have a more sophisticated view. And so there may well be that. But the quote that's given to us in the scripture here right, is he's saying the problem with Paul is he says that God is not made with hands. Let me, what's the verse? Thank you. Saying that they are not gods which are made with hands, right? So this is the view that he is complaining about. And so he's using that view as the thing to rally support. There's no explanation of opposition of him saying, now this is a straw man. You know, he was representing our view. He's saying to these people who make idols, Paul is saying to people that God is not made with hands. And this is to rally support from the silversmiths and the other precious metalsmiths who are making idols. So you're in effect saying, because he's using this argument from Paul, and saying that this is what Paul's saying, that we can infer that they believed that they were making gods. I don't know what they believed, but this is what's professed out there, right? Yeah, it professed. In this speech, it is indicated that he's opposed to that view. That is all. And so whether he is sincere in that belief or not, I do not know. But that is used to rally his support. And it is apparently effective. All right. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would give us understanding. You would help us to understand the city of man and to be able to oppose it well. You'd help us to see where to avoid foolishly rushing in and where to wisely stand in opposition, how to deal with the tactics of spiritual warfare and to know what ought to be done. We pray that you would help us to meditate upon your law, that we would know the way that we ought to go. We pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen.